Jim & Mary’s RV Park

Well our week in Missoula at Jim & Mary’s RV Park has come to an end. While I wish I had some exciting things to share about this week, the truth is that besides our night out at the fair, we spent much of the week at the park working and doing some minor airstream maintenance  The good thing about our week at home was that our home was in a very nice location. This is our site at Jim & Mary’s.

Our home for the week

As you can see we had lots of lush green grass, some trees for shade, and a pretty flower garden in our front yard. The garden even had one of my favorite flowers. This funky purple beauty is called Echinops, or Globe Thistle.

My favorite flower

I have never seen this many flowers at an RV park before. It’s obvious that someone is really into gardening around here.

This is the flower garden that greets you at the entrance to the park

More flowers around the park

We had some company at Jim & Mary’s during the week. Fellow RV’rs Hans and Lisa from Metamorphosis Road, who we met back in Grand Lake, CO, arrived mid-week. Here we are hanging out at our site for happy hour.

Happy Hour RV style

Tim must have been talking while I snuck this photo because they are both looking in his direction.

We didn’t get to do anything more exciting with Hans & Lisa despite their best efforts to invite us for a night out on the town. I think we were in low-key mode this week. It could have had something to do with the heat. It was in the low to mid-90s all week, and while we were quite comfortable with our AC running during the hottest part of the afternoon, we seemed to have little or no motivation for much of anything after working hours. That’s not to say that we spent the entire week hanging at home though. We did get out a few times to bring Phineas to the river. The closest river spot was Council Grove State Park. We went three times.

Council Grove State Park

River dog

We also took a hot afternoon stroll along the river walk in downtown Missoula. The Clark Fork River runs right through the heart of downtown and there is nice path on the side of the river with with easy access to the water. We didn’t go very far since it was in the 90s which is far too hot for old dog to walk around in for any distance. We went just far enough for him to find two spots to swim.

The Clark Fork river

I tried to go raspberry picking, but when I arrived at the small backyard farm it was closed. I have been wanting to go berry picking all summer, but we are never close enough to a berry farm to make it work. After my failed attempt at picking berries, I headed over to check out the Good Food Store where I hoped to find some local berries. No berries, but I did get some local Flathead Cherries and an entire cart full of other goodies. This store was incredible. If I lived in Missoula I would never shop anywhere else. 90% of there produce was local, and much of it organic as well. The prices were very reasonable and the bulk section was pretty epic. Too bad we don’t have extra room for food storage so I couldn’t go too crazy. If you are ever in Missoula, you have to visit this store.

Love this store

Our final outing in Missoula was another stop for food. This time at the Saturday morning farmers market. The Missoula market was not quite as large as the one in Billings, but I thought the selection was better and the prices were much cheaper. The best buy of the market was the stand where I got 3 zucchini and 2 cucumbers for $2! I had to ask twice to make sure that was the right price. The market was located near the historic railroad depot and the stalls were arranged around this cool old train. The sun got in the way of my picture here, but you get the point.

At the farmers market

Saturday was the day we were leaving town, and check out at the park was at eleven. So instead of going to the market early and then rushing back, we left Jim & Mary’s around ten and brought the Airstream with us to the market. Finding parking downtown was easier than anticipated and we found a spot only a few blocks from the market. We’ve been having some serious discussions lately around wanting a larger RV, but this is huge part of the reason why we love our smaller size. Being able to park our home in the middle of a downtown is pretty cool.

Downtown Airstream parking

That’s it for Missoula. Next up — Washington!